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Words of Perfume

Extract from Freddy Ghozland's brand new book L'Herbier Parfumé: human stories of perfume plants. This is a very interesting book, where you will find the history of perfumery, the testimony of perfumers on their career and creations. A detailed description of the main natural raw materials of perfumery, their smell, their power, their use. Recipes for cooking with the use of perfumed essences, etc.

  • 1° L’herbier Parfumé

Its public price is 35€ with no shipping cost.

  • 2° Guerlain: Perfume bottles since 1828

Now out of print, a few dozen copies remain. Its public price is 59€, also available free of charge for 55€.
In both cases, Internet users can contact us directly at the following address: f.ghozland@akeonet.com or by phone at 05 62 16 14 26
Ghozland 18, rue d'Assalit 31500 Toulouse

 

Words of perfume

If we are often able to describe a painting or a sculpture, to comment on a book or an opera aria, it is often difficult to convey the emotion that a perfume can inspire, for lack of a vocabulary of its own.

At Guerlain, I had the role of translator of emotions between marketing and the creative perfumer, of transcribing the wishes of marketing into the technical language of the perfumer and I often hear people say:

  • It's fresh. - You hear it very often, it's fresh, don't look for technical freshness, but it simply smells good, it's pleasant.
  • I find it too acidic, bitter, it clears my throat, it stings. - When a test is a bit too citrusy and rising.
  • It's strong. It's heavy. - Apparently the fragrance doesn't appeal. It takes a special skill to develop fragrances that are not close to your own taste and universe.
  • It's spicy. - Even though there is technically no spice to signify that this fragrance has character.
  • The smell of nail polish, or banana, or a lacquer note. - Often heard from women; the perfumer will immediately understand that there are notably too many benzyl acetate notes.

 

  • It reminds me of wet earth. - Maybe due to too much patchouli or when it is not dressed up enough.
  • It smells like a baby. - Induces a strong presence of white musk or orange blossom. This is a rather positive and appreciated smell, when there is an overdose of musky notes.
  • It smells vegetables, tomato. - I noted this in a recent development: when the green, cis 3 hexenol, triplal notes were a bit lonely and a bit raw.
  • It's dirty. - It smells like a cow, horse or stable. Beware, this means that the animal, indol, leathery notes, civet-like or paracresol for the "horse" notes are in excess. Costus is often the victim of unflattering comments, comparing it to dirty feet or socks, or even greasy hair.
  • It smells like cheese. - Can also mean an animal note coupled with a butyric note.

 

 

  • Smells like a barrel of washing powder or soap. - Which may be an overdose of dihydromyrcenol or simply the scent is too musky.
  • Candy, caramel, hot milk, marshmallow, cake just out of the oven. - Easy to correct in the perfume, vanillin, vanilla or for the veltol which can give this raspberry and caramelized side.
  • The rice powder, it smells old. Or the old book, a dry "scratchy smell", very nasal. - The impression is given by notes that are too iridescent, woody, too classic violet, but mimosa can also evoke this rough, old-fashioned aspect. Mimosa is a difficult material to work with.
  • It smells like cardboard. - This can be given by an excess of solar or salycilic notes.
  • White glue. - Easy! Indeed it is given by anisic aldehyde or heliotropin or coumarin.

 

  • The doll's head, the celluloid. - Vanilla-scented dolls, especially the "Corole" doll, which have marked little girls, they will never forget these notes.
  • The marker. - For the paracresol, my collaborator spots the paracresol when she tells me that it smells like "marker".
  • Hay, cut grass. - A rather positive reference that obviously expresses green notes, like triplal.
  • Green apple shampoo. - To be corrected! This is not a positive comment, it's a bit "cheap".
  • It smells like leeks. - Beware of the quality of vertofix a savoir. It can be annoying.

 

  • Sunscreen, holiday, beach, hot sand. - If these references are voluntary in the fragrance, they are rather positive. These notes are very popular and very "European", a little less known by Asians and Americans who shun the sun.
  • The sea, the oyster, the iodine. - I haven't heard much of this from Guerlain. These products are used in homeopathic doses.
  • It smells like gas oil, petrol. - Often given by an excess of green notes like cis 3 hexenol.
  • Toasted, burnt. - Probably too many pyrasines.
  • It twists my nose. - It is amber woods (karanal style) that can give this effect. I am personally very sensitive to them and I can spot them in PPM.
  • I don't feel anything anymore, my nose is anaesthetised. - It may be due to the presence of violet notes, with the ionones.

 

During my last trip to Canada, some journalists told me about a Guerlain perfume that I was presenting: "This perfume is disgusting". And then surprise! They found it just sublime! Hence the importance of decoding! It is essential to understand what is hidden behind the sometimes crude words and to ask the right questions to deepen the meaning of the remarks.

 

Sylvaine Delacourte perfumes

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.